17 December,2021 08:54 AM IST | Spain | Agencies
PV Sindhu. Pic/Getty Images
Defending champion PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the quarter-finals of the BWF World Championships with straight-game wins in their respective singles round of 16 matches here on Thursday. The World No. 7 Indian defeated her Thai opponent, ranked three places below her, 21-14, 21-18 in the pre-quarterfinal match that lasted 48 minutes.
With the win, Sindhu, seeded sixth in the showpiece tournament, extended her head-to-head record against Chochuwong to 5-3. Sindhu also avenged her twin loss to Chochuwong this season - group match of BWF World Tour Finals earlier this month and All England Championships in March.
The double Olympic medallist Sindhu faces top seed and World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who beat Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 21-10, 19-21, 21-11, in the quarter-finals. In the men's singles, 12th seed Srikanth outplayed unseeded Guang Zu Lu of China 21-10, 21-15 to enter the last eight.
K Srikanth
Indians, however, suffered defeats in both the women's and men's doubles in the pre-quarterfinals. The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 13-21, 15-21 to the Thai duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a 20-22, 21-18, 15-21 defeat to Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Indian doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila were ousted in straight games by Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Suzonov of the Russian badminton federation. Arjun and Dhruv lost 11-21, 16-21 in 41 minutes.
